22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

          How do we get from the first reading to the Gospel?  By that I mean, how do we get from Moses’ insistence not to add or subtract anything to the law, but to observe all of the statutes of the Lord with the utmost care to Jesus’ chastisement of the Pharisees and scribes for doing, apparently, just that?  Are these readings juxtaposed simply to demonstrate that the Old (the Law of Moses), as set forth here in Deuteronomy, has been overturned by the New, as set forth by Jesus?   

To really understand what is going on here, I think we need to understand something about the law as the Pharisees and scribes would have understood it.  In addition to the Ten Commandments, revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, there were 613 additional laws that were either derived from the Ten Commandments or were otherwise set forth in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible).  These 613 commandments were known as the “Mosaic Law.”  On top of that, there were other ritual customs that had developed in what is sometimes called the “oral law,” and this “oral law” placed even greater emphasis on such things as “ritual purity.”  This is where the Pharisees’ consternation about the disciples of Jesus not washing their hands comes from—it was not because they were sticklers about having good hygiene, but because they had an inflated sense of the importance of ritual washing. 

So, you’ve got the Ten Commandments, then these 613 other commandments in the Torah, and then the “oral law” on top of that.  That’s a whole lot of law.  And yet, in this confrontation with the Pharisees, Jesus is by no means trying to tear down the Ten Commandments, or even the “Mosaic Law.”  In fact, as a Jew, Jesus Himself would have grown up with and observed these commandments. 

As He says in Matthew’s Gospel, “The scribes and Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses [in other words, they have inherited the authority of Moses].  Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.”  And earlier in Matthew’s Gospel He says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.  I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.  Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.”  A few verses later in that same chapter, from the “Sermon on the Mount,” if anything Jesus intensifies the requirements of the commandments.  He says, for example, “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’  But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement.”  In other words, it’s not enough that we just don’t commit murder; the law of God demands something more from us than simply not killing.  It requires a deeper change within us, at the level of the heart, in how we look on our fellow human beings, if we would be disciples of Jesus Christ.  

Now, to be sure, we are no longer bound to observe those 613 commandments of the Old Covenant.  We believe that these have reached their fulfillment in the New Covenant in Christ’s blood (Saint Paul is adamant about this in his letters).  The old law is perfectly fulfilled in the new and supreme law of love.   But again, the point is that the law is not in itself Jesus’ enemy here.  Jesus is not some kind of anarchist.  No, His real “target,” I think, is that purely human and hyper-inflated understanding of the law that developed at the expense of a much more important sense of moral integrity.  Jesus’ enemy is that interpretation of the law that completely strips it of its original meaning and purpose.  His enemy is placing certain less important precepts of the law over and above those most basic and foundational precepts of the law.  His enemy is hypocrisy, the apparent, outward adherence to the law, all the while allowing oneself to rot from within, morally and spiritually.  His enemy is that kind of superficiality and duplicity that can all too easily creep its way into the lived reality of our faith, and which, sadly, we have been reminded of once again within our Church in these past weeks.

But Jesus draws a distinction between ritual defilement (not washing one’s hands) and moral defilement—letting all manner of evil things to issue from one’s heart.  Or more positively, He draws a distinction between ritual purity and true purity of soul, and clearly one is more important than the other.  Jesus says, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come from within are what defile.”  Similarly, nothing from the outside can really cleanse us deep down.  Rather, what comes from within us, from our hearts, is what makes us truly clean.  If “evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, [and] folly” bring defilement and corruption, then good thoughts, chastity, respect for others’ property, respect for life, fidelity, generosity, kindness, truthfulness, self-control, gratitude, reverence for God, humility and prudence bring purity of soul and life everlasting.  If our faith would be true, it must be lived in these ways. 

But, I would add that not living up to the faith we profess perfectly yet is different than hypocrisy.  Just because we are not saints yet, doesn’t mean we should brand ourselves as “hypocrites,” as many critics of our faith or of religion in general might have us do.  There’s a big difference between the person who is living in open defiance of God’s law while pretending to be a good Christian and the person who truly believes, but who struggles and is constantly faced with his or her own weakness, but who courageously takes up the challenge of the Gospel again and again in a genuine desire to live it out more perfectly.

If I can suggest a starting place for this living out more fully, more sincerely, the message of the Gospel, I would invite you to start right here at Mass.  I know that there are often many distractions, some that we bring with us and some that we find here, but make an honest effort to enter into this great prayer that is the Mass.  We have many rituals that we carry out here, and they can easily seem empty to us if we are not truly engaged in what we are doing.  If our worship would be meaningful, then we must give ourselves over to it with our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole body, and our whole soul.  And even in our desire to do this, even with our best effort, we may fall short.  But again, this is not hypocrisy; this is human weakness—the result of our fallen nature.  But there is also the capacity within us, as a result of our redeemed nature, to give fitting and true worship to God.

Once we have made a sincere effort to pray with our hearts, and not just with our lips, at Mass, then the next challenge for us is to try to “pray with our lives,” to really live out the message we have heard here, to in right relationship with God and with our neighbor.  If we would avoid being as the Pharisees in the Gospel today, if we would avoid being hypocrites, then we cannot simply leave our faith at the doors of this chapel to pick it up again next week.  Rather, we have to bring our faith with us into the very ordinary situations of life.  We have to strive to avoid that list of evils that can issue from our hearts and corrupt and instead try to live out their corresponding virtues, which bring life and wholeness.  And, again, we will not always be perfect in this, but above all we must keep trying, relying always on the grace of God.  I am personally very consoled when I myself go to confession and say those words of the Act of Contrition, “I firmly resolve with the help of your grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin.”  With the help of your grace….

I guess if I could summarize this, all I need do is to turn to the words of St. James in our second reading today.  First, “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.”   Humbly welcome the Word.  This we do by our active and attentive participation at Mass and through our other prayers.  Second, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.”  We are doers of the word, when we come from Mass or from our other times of prayer and we allow what we have received to begin to really make a difference in our lives.  As Christians the law of believing, the law of prayer, and the law of living are inextricably linked—we cannot pull them apart or take one without the others—so that we believe what we pray, we pray what we believe, and we live what we pray and believe.  This is what will make for a “religion that is pure,” as St. James tell us.  This is what will bring us true happiness, now and forever.